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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 15:47:58 GMT -6
The good thing was that their dinner was a good and hearty one, with plenty of energizing types that should work with Badrani to keep warm; and she was sure that she could keep Shahrazad warm enough herself. She removes a shawl from her own waist that she wore over her pants and since it was fairly broad she wrapped it around Shahrazad like a blanket. "Here you go hun'." She said, though the last word was a loan word from her own language that was a pet name, and not at all literally 'hun'. She patted Shahrazad on the head. "I'll need to work on getting us some breakfast, okay?" Perhaps it would have been proper to save some of their food- and in fact Badrani had saved some of her portion, but she did also want to catch more just in case. The bait was still on the end of the line, so that was a stroke of luck.
[45]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 18:55:41 GMT -6
Badrani wasn't sure if it would have been a good idea to go down to get more bait had the bait have been gone. However, she was quite lucky that she had gotten it to stay on the hook so well earlier- so she could stay up on the perch away from the water and try to throw the fishing line back in. She didn't think it would be very difficult. After making sure that the bait was on the hook still and that Shahrazad was nearby, she tossed out the line- and it landed nearby on the sand. She isn't too surprised at herself- she didn't really know how to flick the line the proper way to cast it from a distance like this. She began to slowly bring the hook back to the tip of the fishing pole using the reel. Soon enough, she was poised to make another attempt.
[46]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 19:05:19 GMT -6
Shahrazad watched as Badrani tried multiple times to get the baited hook out into the water from their perch. All of the 'wrong' in the setup was in Badrani's technique. She just didn't have any experience before this with anything at all that could be applicable to the situation of fishing- she just wasn't very good at it at all. However, she continued trying- and something about that made Shahrazad very pleased. She liked that about Badrani, and she was quite pleased and comfortable beside her.
Despite the cold and dark, she felt warm and protected at Badrani's side. She began to sleep right there beside Badrani- who didn't even notice until she finally got the baited hook back into the water. She was going to whoop and mention some of her celebratory feelings, but then she noticed that Shahrazad was fast asleep. Perhaps the night was going to turn out alright after all?
[47]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 19:17:39 GMT -6
Badrani tries to fish for hours, but she doesn't really have any success. She's starting to get quite cold as well, as night was well fallen around them. She curls up closer on the now quite cool stone and stare out, still holding the fishing pole out in her strong hand. She knew that it wasn't cold enough to hurt them, but it was still incredibly uncomfortable. Perhaps fishing at night in the fall had not been the best of ideas, especially since Badrani did not know the area as well as she would have liked. Just when she was beginning to give up, she felt the line snag again. Warily, she tried to jerk the hook back to 'lodge' the hook properly; and this time it simply snapped out and re-entered the water with a 'PLOP!' The noise frightened Shahrazad awake, who jumped a little. She was shivering back away from Badrani in an instant.
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 19:24:18 GMT -6
Badrani curses her horrid luck- she just wasn't having an easy day fishing in the slightest. She frowns, and then turns towards Shahrazad with her hand out- soft side up. "Come here, you'll catch cold." She said, voice soft and expression softening upon seeing how scared the young draconic was. "Here, I'll tell you a story." Badrani had not planned that- it had slipped out of her mouth quite unbidden. However, she knew that it would calm her down (it always calmed Dogo down whenever the wild animals howled down from the dunes at night) and she couldn't refuse the youngster a story after she saw happiness sparkle in the sleepy draconic's lavender eyes.
The dark Ssashirk makes sure that the hook is in a good place in the water before she starts, Shahrazad cuddling up against her side again for warmth. She uses her off hand to re-settle the silky material of the shawl around the youngster's shoulders.
[49]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 19:32:41 GMT -6
Badrani has no idea what sort of story she was going to tell the young draconic. She didn't really want to tell anything that could give her any indication in the future as to which clan she'd belonged to (even if she never found properly out- if she had to give out that information later it could be dangerous), so she had to be very careful about the story. So, she decides on something that had nothing to do with her at all; a myth that was fairly common across Ssashirk traders- nothing that was close to her own clan's individual stories. It was a story about a great fighter that was captured after a battle over water that was owned by her clan and traded as a slave-soldier. She spoke of her several great adventures and of her wildfire wit, and finally of her freedom and her having been a great clan leader that was said to have owned half of the water in the desert by the time she passed.
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 19:51:55 GMT -6
She was not a great orator by her people's standards- but Badrani seemed to have caught young Shahrazad's imagination with the practiced retelling of the story that Badrani had heard a million times before. She found that it made her feel much calmer, and seemed to calm down the young draconic as well. It was a good idea; despite her having been a little anxious about the entire situation before. It might be a long night before the sun came up to make their ascent much easier; but they were going to be able to deal with it now, she felt.
After Badrani finished with her oration, Shahrazad begged her for another story. She didn't see any issue with it; especially since there had been very little fish activity that she had been able to feel using the fishing pole at least. "Sure. Since the fish aren't biting and all." She agreed, voice a little bit on the gruff side due to the cold night air.
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 20:04:28 GMT -6
Badrani felt like she had read that perhaps speaking could be felt in some way by creatures that lived in the water and might keep them away, but even in the silence that they had been in before she hadn't had any sort of fish attempting to bite that she could feel through the pole. She didn't see any reason not to orate another story. So she thought for a moment about which one would be the best to give, and she was a little bit anxious to give anything too specific- so she decides upon another mythological figure. This time she gave a story about a man from the Red-Wall that survived an attack on his life when he'd went out to the latrine at night, and that he became rich after having fallen on hard luck by accident and used his wealth to protect the downtrodden.
Shahrazad seemed to like this one even more.
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 20:13:55 GMT -6
Those two were the start of several stories that Badrani told that night. By the time that she was on the last one, her voice felt absolutely shredded- her voice box absolutely quite sore. She rubbed her neck quietly as she shivered in the cold on the rock. Shahrazad was asleep by this point, but she had continued with the story mostly to make herself feel better. Sitting in the cold of night in the middle of the canyon next to the river had actually gotten much more cold than it did overnight in the desert; and she felt that it had something to do with the water being nearby. Didn't water stay cool most of the time, even in the heat? The Ssashirk was beginning to nod off on her own whenever she heard a noise nearby; and it sounded like... Splashing, in the water. For a moment, Badrani was silent and still- anxious.
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 20:17:36 GMT -6
At first Badrani had been anxious that maybe the splashing noise was a fish somewhere out there- and it had to be BIG. The splashing sounds were so incredibly loud that she had no idea what to think about what kind of a creature that could make that sort of noise from well within the depths of the river itself. However, she soon realized that it was an echo- it had to be a noise echoing down the canyon, and it sounded like four legs moving through the river. Something, or perhaps someone BIG was walking through the water, like one would the shallows of a lake, but this was certainly not a lake and that was a lot of water that was moving, surely. Badrani was silent, listening quietly. Was it getting closer, or was the sound getting further away? She thought about calling out, but she didn't want to scare Shahrazad.
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 20:22:25 GMT -6
So the elder Ssashirk waited patiently, and soon enough she was convinced- the sound was coming this way! She wasn't sure form what direction it was heading, but she knew that she would most likely be able to see whoever it was -because she really wanted to believe that it was going to be a person and not some kind of an animal (she didn't want to think about what it would be like if it wasn't, they'd already had a fairly harrowing enough experience for a young draconic today anyway)- and whenever she saw them she hoped that they would help them. Time seemed to pass so slowly, though it could have only been a few moments of time. Finally, around a corner just a bit away (it wasn't much of a corner, more like a roll in the canyon wall) something large and green, and with great glowing eyes moves into view.
A draconic! Perhaps they'd be saved?
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 21:51:07 GMT -6
Now that possibly help was practically upon them (but not looking directly at them) Badrani was not quite as worried about waking up Shahrazad instead of letting her rest. They stood up after making sure that they weren't going to let Shahrazad's head hit the rock they were sitting on and hurt her. "Hey!" They called out, not exactly saying anything in particular but trying to get the attention of the greenish draconic. The individual glanced up at them, head tilted. Badrani starts first in common, hoping that the draconic knew common, but then they switched to Saakash in an attempt to get the individual to understand them. When that didn't work- she had no idea what to do.
Shahrazad had woken up by that point, and glanced up at Badrani with confusion before she notices the huge draconic standing in the water of the river, staring them down with obvious confusion on their face.
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 21:56:58 GMT -6
They were in luck, because apparently while she had been born nearly completely fluent in common (whereas Badrani was only mostly fluent) she was also fluent in draconic. The whole conversation was a blur to Badrani, she had no idea how to understand Draconic at this point, but she could tell from Shahrazad's facial expression and tone that they were going to get help. Shahrazad examples to Badrani on the way home (led by the great draconic, who used their claws to help them make some steps along the way with relative ease) that this individual lived down the way and was taking a nightly stroll. Apparently the individual was not pleased to see Badrani at first, but whenever they had seen Shahrazad along the way, they were very happy to help the youngster in need. This individual was a volunteer cave-builder, and worked on making abodes for the entire section of canyon.
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 22:02:00 GMT -6
The two rested at home the rest of the night, and the next two days after that without coming down. During that time, the volunteer cave builders that lived nearby worked to make them an easier set of steps down to the River Below, and Badrani was anything if not a gracious host. She made sure that their needs were met and offered food to the resting parties- and asked them questions in return about the culture and the River itself. Shahrazad was passed around by nearly every draconic that was there, she got to ride on the backs of a few flying draconics as well since she was relatively small. After the work was done, they were sad to see the volunteers go, but they knew their neighbors much better now and Badrani was less suspicious to everyone that lived in the canyon.
Soon enough the pair went down to the River again in the early morning, this time with lunch packed and an easy way up and down the cliffside.
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Post by Badrani on Nov 8, 2021 22:07:49 GMT -6
The descent was much simpler this time, and Badrani could not have been more thankful for it. Her body was so sore after the entire incident, and of course Shahrazad had been a little ill afterwards, she'd only just stopped sneezing. The entire time they had tried to rest up in the tent Badrani had told her plenty of stories. Stories and stories and stories galore- anything she could think of, and a few that she made up. Shahrazad loved them and it kept up her morale while she was in the worst of it. She was much better now, and VERY energetic today. She practically raced down the steps, and got to the bank a lot quicker than Badrani did. The river was already much lower than it had been, and Badrani was actually very relieved at that.
Imagine that, being relieved for once that there was LESS water. It was bizarre.
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